A problem which is inherent in construction of modern buildings is the placement of communications and electrical cables within the walls, sub-floors and ceilings. Modern office buildings, in particular, tend to be constructed in a "drop-ceiling" style for fire prevention reasons. This results in a space being created between the apparent ceiling of a room and the floor of the next story. It is within this space that cabling is usually arrayed.
Persons involved in installing cables on behalf of telephone operations, computer networking personnel and other cable related applications encounter substantial difficulty in installing the cables within the ceiling space. Typically the ceiling space is cluttered in that the apparent ceiling is hung from the girders on wires, thus creating substantial barriers to placement of the cables. Furthermore, air conditioning ducts, lighting fixtures and other elements are present in the ceiling space to interfere with an orderly arrangement of cables. Additionally, since the ceiling space is not designed to support substantial weight it is typically not feasible for an installer to physically enter the space and to crawl around to position the cable as would be the situation in an attic or housing foundation.
Therefore, installers have had to come up with other methods of successfully placing the cable over a substantial distance within the ceiling space. One technique commonly used is to simply continue moving the installer's ladder from ceiling tile to ceiling tile while pushing the cabling ahead a short distance at a time. Unfortunately, since typical ceiling tiles are somewhat fragile and have a tendency to shed, an increase in the number of tiles removed in an installation operation leads to a corresponding increase in breakage of tiles and in dust and debris clean-up activity. Another common method is to attempt to utilize the cable as a lasso by throwing a coil ahead of the installer in an attempt to cover the space between multiple ceiling tiles in a single toss. The inventor has even observed installers utilizing a slingshot and spinning reel technique. Unwound coat hangers and similar hooked elements have also been utilized in an attempt to grab the cable from a forward position and to pull it into position.
In addition to inherent inelegance, the prior art methods all suffer various disadvantages in installing cabling in a cluttered ceiling space. Therefore, substantial room for improvement exists in this field.